Happy Birthday Dan!

We celebrated Dan's birthday this weekend. It was so nice to have Blake and Leslie and kids and Tim, Jade, and Christian with us for the occasion. Claire suggested that the kids prepare a song to sing for Dan on his birthday, and here's what he got! Everyone loves a little Johnny Cash on their birthday, don't they?!

The Paper Route

Ethan and Claire and Jane started their first paper route today. It's a great set up; they only have to deliver once a week, so they get to earn a bit of money each month and learn how to save and manage their money. And they learn to work! They are saving up for a trampoline. Here's a shot of them after they delivered about 120 papers!

Baseball Jane

Now that Jane goes to Ethan's baseball practices and games, she has taken a liking to the sport! She picked up a bat the other day and asked Dan to pitch to her. She was very patient and here's the result:

This is Ethan's first year playing baseball. He loves it.

Claire is not as excited to attend Ethan's games.

Jane, Did you have fun at Ethan's game? (deep breathing, deep breathing...) Luke, I am you Father.

Happy Birthday to Jane!

Jane celebrated her 3rd birthday on Saturday. Here she is with some of her silly/scary faces. Thanks to all who contributed to the new bike fund. She had been asking and asking and asking for a bike everyday for about 2 months!

Happy Halloween!

Love, Darth Vader,

Pegasus/Unicorn, and

Kangaroo

Happy Birthday Claire and Ethan!

For the kiddies party this year, we rescued the unicorn (the pinata) from the dragon (Dan).

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Look at all those fake smiles!!! Both Ethan and Claire reported have a happy first day of school.

O Canada!

The children and I took a trip to Canada recently and had a great time. We met my parents and drove to Palmyra, New York where we saw some Church History sites and the Hill Cumorah Pagent. Ethan particularly enjoyed it and remarked a few times, "I can't believe I'm really here!" We drove up to Canada then and stopped at Niagara Falls. It was the first time the kiddies had been. We went behind the falls--that's when we're wearing our yellow rain ponchos! We also spent a great day at Wasaga Beach. The waves were great that day. We went to African Lion Safari and Jane has been talking about rhinos ever since. You take a bus tour (or your own car if you don't mind it being picked apart by monkeys) through 6 different wildlife sanctuaries, so you're actually driving right past the animals! It was really good. Then we saw a great (but sad) elephant show and spent a good part of the afternoon at the water park. Another great day. We visited a great playground close to Grandma's house. And I really enjoyed eating Canadian KitKats. When we got home it was time to pack, pack, pack for our move--so the children would "picnic" at their little red table w/ their plastic plates and forks, since everything else was packed. The goggles are a nice touch, yes?

A Sliver, The Tooth Fairy, and 6 Plastic Bags

Last night I took Ethan on a "date"to the toy store. Dan was home with the girls, who enjoyed a nice game of Princess Yahtzee. Claire got this huge sliver, just from running around the house--not the first time someone has been slivered in a big way!

Jane is having sympathy pains.

Claire came home from school today with one less tooth than she had this morning! This is her second tooth to go and she's excited for the Tooth Fairy's visit tonight.


I made this little pencil case/change purse tonight from old plastic shopping bags. Thanks to Carlee for teaching me the wonders of parchment paper, Target bags, and an iron.

On Saturday Ethan and Claire went to their Spring Fair at school. Ethan won an award for making 5 baskets. Here he is showing off his medal. Later this weekend, Jane the warrior knight was wreaking her havoc on woman and children at home.

Jane

Does this look comfortable? At bed time Jane has a big drink of milk, brushes her teeth, then loads up her bed with babies, animals, and books--just like her brother and sister do. There usually isn't much room left for Jane, so a lot of times part of her is hanging out of the bed and she's usually sleeping with a stack of books underneath her. How does she fall asleep like that? Apparently, without too much trouble!

I love this picture! Jane wears skirts or dresses everyday. This is a must--even if it means wearing it over pants and a sweat shirt on cooler days.

Tonight: A Visit From the Tooth Fairy!

Claire lost her first tooth today! She carefully wrapped it in a tissue, put it in an envelope, and put it under her pillow this afternoon. Tonight, as I was tucking her in she said how excited she was for the Tooth Fairy to come; and she really looked very excited! She was also very confident that she would get more than 50 cents for her tooth.

Growing Up

We experienced a couple of "firsts" today. 1. Claire has a loose tooth! We have not had anybody lose a tooth yet, so it's very exciting! She mentioned tonight that she was a little nervous about blood coming out or about losing her tooth if it came out at school. But she is excited about the Tooth Fairy's visit! 2. Jane wore big girl undies for the first time today! We had 4 accidents in 3 hours and no undies left! Jane said she didn't want to wear her diaper, but she did not want to go pee pee on the potty either....hhmmmmm...??? I didn't choose a very good day to begin a serious undertaking of potty training because she was awake until 10PM last night, thinking she was very funny (which is 2 hours past her bedtime), and she was up earlier than usual this morning. Needless to say, she was back in a diaper, feeling comfortable and safe, by 11AM!! Bribery didn't even work! Jane asks for gumballs all day long--really all day, before breakfast, after every meal, whenever I open the cupboard where the gumballs (and tupperware) are kept--all day. So, I told her I would give her a big gumball if she would go pee pee on the potty. She would promptly march over, pull down her undies, sit down for maybe 1 second, pop right back up and, beaming, say, "big gumball?" It was hard for her to understand that something actually had to come out of her while on the potty for her to get the gumball, so she didn't like that very well! Oh well! We're in no hurry!

Spring Break: Days 4 & 5

We took the train into Manhattan on Friday. It's the first time the children have been. It was a good learning experience! The children did very well, considering all the walking, but there was plenty of complaining (understandably) about tiredness. I had forgotten how really crowded the streets are, so Ethan and Claire had to hang on to one of us almost all the time--which was hard sometimes when there was so much for them to see and b/c it's hard to fit us on a crowded sidewalk side by side. It was good though. We're glad we went. We just won't make it a regular occurrence! The train ride is a little over 90 minutes. The children enjoyed the train for about 30 minutes then were ready to get off and do something. We arrived at Grand Central Station and walked to Times Square, then walked to Central Park, where we played on the playground and visited the zoo. FAO Schwartz is just a couple of blocks down from the zoo, and it was fun for the kids to see. We then grabbed an over-priced bite to eat and walked back to the train station! I really like NYC and haven't been in years and years, so it was great fun to be there and walk the streets and see the sights. It was the perfect day to go--the weather could not have been better.
Jane really enjoyed the train.

Times Square

This is as close as we got the the Statue of Liberty this trip!

Jane Loves NY!

Central Park

Central Park Zoo. The seal lions were fun--they put on a good show. Jane's favourite was the snow leopard. He walked right past Jane several times and we thought we might never convince her to leave. The highlight for Ethan and Claire was when a penguin swam right past them and pooped as he did so.

Ethan and Claire made a friend in Central Park!

5th Avenue--kiddie corner from The Plaza


Day 4--Ethan and Claire became superheros today. Claire was Black Cat and Ethan was one of the Fantastic Four...I'm not sure who though!

Spring Break: Day 3

Today was another sunny day in New Haven. We went to Sleeping Giant Park, roasted some hot dogs, played in the fields, threw rocks into the river. It was a very pleasant outdoor day. I think the highlight for Jane was throwing rocks into the river. She could sit on the bank, endlessly, and throw rock after rock after rock. As time passes she wants the rocks to be bigger and bigger, but her aim isn't very good and she almost pegged Claire right in the head! Luckily she didn't, though. She just got Claire nice and wet with her big rock splashes.

Spring Break: Day 1

Today was the first day of Spring Break for Ethan and Claire. We spent the morning jumping on the bed and at a park that we have never visited before. It was great fun. The tire swing was everyone's favourite.